We've gotten a lot of press, but we need you to tell Americans that companies are covering up their discrimination.

Things are not what they seem in high-tech. Bright Future Jobs discovered the secret tech companies don't want the American public to know:that corporations are avoiding hiring Americans for their job openings on US soil.

"The lawsuit, filed this week in federal court in San Francisco, claims that 95% of the 14,000 people Tata employs in the U.S. are South Asian or mostly Indian. It says this practice has created a "grossly disproportionate workforce."

Donna Conroy, who heads the tech advocacy group Bright Future Jobs, which highlights discriminatory hiring practices in job ads, said Title VII lawsuits "are unique in their power to force cultural and policy changes in an entire industry.

"Whether they are won or lost, the publicity educates readers on proper and improper conduct from HR," Conroy said.

With this lawsuit, Conroy said, "we can start the process of exonerating the American IT workforce who have been relentlessly denigrated in order to hide the tech industry's widespread practice of discriminating against Americans."

Associated PressBacklash stirs in US against foreign worker visas"We have a shortage in the industry all right — a shortage of fair and ethical recruiting and hiring," said Donna Conroy, director of Bright Future Jobs, a group of tech professionals fighting to end what it calls "discriminatory hiring that is blocking us ... from competing for jobs we are qualified to do."

"U.S. workers should have the freedom to compete first for job openings," Conroy said.

American Bazaar OnlineAdvocacy groups call for boycott of employment applications to 3 of the biggest tech companies in the US, June, 2014In the paper announcing their boycott of IBM, Infosys, and Manpower, the advocacy groups claim that these IT companies go out of their way to hire workers from India, putting out ads for jobs more than a year before the positions are actually open. This allows foreigners to get the ball rolling on their immigration processes, but also completely excludes US workers from any available jobs during that time span.

Business Standard (India)US Tech Worker Groups Boycott Infosys, IBM, Manpower June, 2014Three technology workers groups in the US have announced a boycott against Infosys, IBM and Manpower claiming that the companies have indulged in hiring practices that excludes US workforce from local job openings in that country.

The boycott will continue until these three technology majors demonstrate employment practices that follow laws prohibiting discrimination in the upcoming jobs for FY2016, the three groups-- Bright Future Jobs, Programmers Guild and Washtech, said in a press release. Recruitment for these jobs will start from October this year. NOSTOPS, a national technology advocacy organisation in India, is supporting the boycott.

"Indian employers exhibit a strong preference for local talent for jobs in India--why don’t companies in the US do the same? This will protect the Indian foreign workers from the accusation of displacing Americans,” said Rajiv Dabhadkar, director of NOSTOPS. “Indians were not put on this earth to displace Americans, but Manpower's recruiting efforts show this is their plan."

ComputerworldTech worker groups boycott IBM, Infosys, Manpower, June, 2014Three U.S. tech worker groups have launched a labor boycott of IBM, Infosys and Manpower, saying the companies have engaged in a pattern that discourages U.S. workers from applying for U.S. IT jobs by tailoring employment ads toward overseas workers.

The companies should look first for U.S. workers to fill U.S. IT jobs, said representatives of Bright Future Jobs, the Programmers Guild and WashTech.

With the boycott, the three groups want to raise awareness of discriminatory hiring practices and put pressure on the three companies to consider U.S. IT workers for U.S. jobs, said Donna Conroy, director of Bright Future Jobs.

The main goals of the boycott are "attention getting" and putting pressure on the IT staffing firms to change their practices, Conroy said. With IT staffing agencies competing to fill U.S. positions, the companies contracting for their services may want to consider if the staffing firm "has a good reputation," she said.

The boycott should also raise concerns about staffing firms violating equal employment laws, said Les French, president of WashTech. Read more...

Washington ExaminerTop Healthcare.gov Contractor May Add to Users' Security, Privacy Worries, Nov. 2013The presence of a significant number of H-1B workers at QSSI may also contradict recent congressional testimony by a company executive, who said the firm has no employees from outside the U.S. working on healthcare.gov.

These are not new issues for QSSI, which saw a federal contract cancelled in 2008 after federal officials charged that the IT firm’s workforce failed to satisfy U.S. legal requirements for a minimum acceptable proportion of U.S. citizens.

Donna Conroy, head of the Chicago-based group Bright Future Jobs, which represents U.S. tech workers, said Slavitt’s response was incomplete. “What he is saying is, ‘we don’t outsource,’ but he is not stating ‘we don’t recruit in India,'” she said.

In fact, QSSI’s search for H-1B foreign workers continued even as Slavitt was testifying. On Oct. 17, QSSI posted a want ad on Naukri.com, a leading Indian online jobs site. The word Naukri in Hindi means "jobs." In the ad, the Maryland-based company with offices in Hyderabad, India, posted five job openings for its Enterprise Identity Management System. The jobs were located in QSSI’s Maryland facility.

QSSI stated, “We are actively looking to fill this position at the earliest.” The salary range was given in the Indian currency of rupees.

Indian outsourcing giant Infosys has agreed to pay the U.S. government $34 million to settle an investigation into immigration problems. The company supplies American firms with foreign tech workers. But as NPR's Martin Kaste reports, American tech workers have long argued that Infosys also holds down wages and creates unfair competition.

KASTE: Still, this settlement is seen as vindication by the American tech workers who've complained about unfair competition from foreigners on questionable visas. They say that competition has held down wages despite the big demand for software engineers. Donna Conroy runs Bright Future Jobs. It's a group opposed to what she regards as widespread industry discrimination.

CONROY: This proves that they will do anything, including breaking the law, in order to avoid hiring Americans.

PC WorldA Wisconsin IT professional has filed a lawsuit against Indian outsourcing firm Infosys alleging that the company discriminates against U.S. job applicants in favor of South Asians for jobs in the U.S.

Brenda Koehler, an IT worker with 17 years of experience, alleges that Infosys ignored her qualifications and eventually hired a Bangladeshi worker to staff a position she was qualified for. Koehler and her lawyers are asking the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin to allow a class-action lawsuit against Infosys, with “thousands” of potential plaintiffs in the case, according to the lawsuit, filed Thursday.

“Ms. Koehler’s experience is not unique,” Donna Conroy, director of Bright Future Jobs, a group advocating for U.S. tech workers, said in an email. “High-tech companies claim they can’t find Americans to fill U.S jobs, when, in fact, they are rejecting talented Americans—as this lawsuit reveals.”

KASTE: The secret, as she calls it, is this: technicalities in the law allow the vast majority of employers to skip the good faith recruiting rule. But a lot of people make the same assumption. I did. And Conroy says it's time the law caught up.

CONROY: If everybody in America thinks that the H1-B program requires employers to seek local talent first and hire equally or better qualified Americans, then why don't we just fix the law to match what we believe is true?

KASTE: It's not a new suggestion. In 2010, the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department recommended that all employers be required to test the U.S. labor market before seeking H1-B workers. And in 2009, Democratic Senator Dick Durbin and Republican Chuck Grassley introduced legislation to do just that. Now that immigration is back on the agenda, Grassley says he's going to try again.

Daily Caller"“It’s discrimination,” said Donna Conroy, the executive director of Bright Future Jobs, a nonprofit trying to aid U.S. workers. The problem is widespread, she said, because many of the discriminating companies are now doing work that was outsourced by the major companies that have laid off many Americans."

"Companies’ recruitment of foreign guest workers in lieu of Americans was highlighted this month by a federal lawsuit of Avant Healthcare Professionals, a Florida-based company.“ Hundreds of Avant Healthcare Professionals’ Internet-based job postings contained discriminatory language, impermissibly preferring foreign-trained individuals seeking permanent residence or H-1B visa sponsorship over U.S. workers,” said a Feb. 6 statement by the [Department of Justice]. The company paid $27,750 to settle the lawsuit, but did not admit any wrongdoing, said company CEO Shari Sandifer."

Wall Street Journal Tech Blog “Job listings discriminate against Americans, says professional group. A number of ads appearing on a U.S. IT job board Dice.com between January and March exclusively catered to foreign visa holders, at the expense of citizens, claims a high-tech professional group. Donna Conroy, director of Bright Future Jobs, tells InfoWorld’s Grant Gross that the ads are “”clearly, unmistakenly saying, no Americans need apply.” The group is pushing lawmakers to crack down on such ads.”

PC WorldGroup: Hundreds of Dice.com Listings Discriminate Against US Workers, July 2012"IT job board Dice.com has hundreds of listings for jobs that aren't available to U.S. tech workers because the listings are aimed at foreign visa holders, said Bright Future Jobs, a group of high-tech professionals focused on encouraging U.S. IT workers."

TLNT: The Business of HRIT Watchdog Group Says Staffing Firms Discriminate Against Americans, July 2012"An IT recruiting watchdog group says some staffing companies are abusing the U.S. visa program, advertising jobs that may not even exist, and limiting applicants to non-citizens. "The public is led to believe that companies can’t find Americans to fill high-tech jobs when, in fact, they are not searching for Americans — as these ads show," said Donna Conroy, a founder of Bright Future Jobs and author of No Americans Need Apply."

Science Careers,a division of Science MagazineHow to Create an American Technical Talent Shortage, July 2012"The ads cited in the report use abbreviations that refer to particular short-term visas and are generally unfamiliar to Americans. They also often promise sponsorship for permanent residency. They therefore "may involve multiple legal violations of discrimination law for a U.S. citizen job applicant who is bypassed based on his or her national origin," says the Bright Future Jobs Web site. The group urges Dice.com to remove such discriminatory ads, which apparently form only a portion of the site's listings."

Computer WorldSome IT jobs signal preference for visa holders, report claims, July 2012"These IT companies often express in the ad's job title a specific interest in hiring someone on a visa. The ads may often include asking for someone on "OPT" -- that is, a recent college graduate who can work under the Optional Practical Training (OPT) visa program. One ad from AET Solutions says it is "Looking for Fresher's," a term that is widely used in India to recruit recent college graduates, while offering free training for OPT students. It is seeking "fresh graduates" with a master's degree in computer science or software engineering."

Human Resource Executive (Online Edition)Are Job Ads Going Too Far? July 2012"Specifically, Bright Future Jobs says it found 37 ads with only visa worker terms in the title, and 30 ads with both visa worker terms and IT terms in the title. Thirty-three ads, meanwhile, had only IT terms in the title, but listed visa terms or offered H1-B visas and green cards under the skills section.

Terms included U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service abbreviations such as OPT (Optional Practical Training) and CPT (Curricular Practical Training). Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, it's illegal for employers to discriminate against job candidates based on their citizenship status.

Fifty-seven of the Dice.com ads offered green cards, the report says. "What struck me the most was the brazenness and magnitude of [these kind of ads]," says Conroy."

LiveMint (India)"The issue of job advertisements aimed at foreign workers recently made national headlines in the US, after a Chicago-based non-governmental organization, Bright Futures, published a report highlighting the issue last week. Called No Americans Need Apply, the report drew attention to more than 100 job postings on a prominent information technology (IT) job site, Dice.com, specifically requesting visa holders, such as H-1B, L-1, and OPT (a category of work visa given to foreign students), in the headlines of the job postings.

The report also drew attention to growing numbers of “OPT recruiter” positions posted by American companies with openings in the US and India. “This clearly discriminates against Americans,” said Donna Conroy, the report’s writer. Bright Futures wants the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a federal agency established to prevent workplace discrimination based on race, colour, national origin, religion, sex, age or disability, to start cracking down on such job ads, Conroy said. “What we are trying to do is update those laws to include the elimination of visa terms in a job ad. Visa terms don’t define jobs or skills—they only exclude American workers.”"

Center for Immigration StudiesIT Employers’ Coded Ads: “No Americans Need Apply”"Suppose you are a computer programmer, and a citizen, and you are looking for a job. You are reading the classified ads where information technology firms advertise for people with your skills. You see an ad with this headline: "Hiring OPT/CPT/L2 EAD/TN/H1 candidates for Full Time".

You will probably ignore the ad because the initials mean nothing to you, even though had you looked closely in the small print you would have found a reference to your skills."

CIO MagazineMany rank-and-file IT professionals laud the legislation. "The Durbin bill will put a stop to the outsourcing of American jobs and the discrimination against American IT professionals," says Donna Conroy, a former IT professional and director of Bright Future Jobs, a grassroots lobbying group for American IT workers. "This bill was written for us."

Each provision is important to Conroy and her group's constituents—an end to "H-1B only" job ads and caps on the total percentage of H-1B professionals on staff in a company. She adds, "But the stealth provision—preventing body shops from farming out their visa workers—will, in effect, end the despicable practice of forcing us to train our foreign replacements."

Bright Future Jobs is a 501(c)4 non-profit; a social welfare organization promoting American Opportunity for US technical professionals and ensuring we pass on the opportunities we were given--to the next generation. Donations to Bright Future Jobs are not tax deductible. As a 501(c)4, the identities of donors are not disclosed. We do not endorse candidates for elected office.